Deborah Batts

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Deborah A. Batts

Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
In office 1994 – present
Nominated by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Richard Owen

Born	February 13, 1947 (1947-02-13) (age 61) Philadelphia, Pa.
Alma mater	Radcliffe College Harvard Law School

The Honorable Deborah A. Batts (born 13 April 1947) is a U.S. federal judge, currently serving on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is the first and, as of 2008, the only openly LGBT person to have served as a judge of the United States federal courts.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was educated at Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School. She subsequently clerked on the Federal Court on which she now serves as a Judge and later as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1979 to 1984. In 1984 she became an Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University. On the recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, she was appointed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton to a seat left open in 1989 when Judge Richard Owen took senior status. She continues to serve as an adjunct at Fordham.

[edit] Major cases

1999 - criminal trial of Cheng Yong Wang and Xingqi Fu, charged in scheme to arrange transplant of organs taken from executed Chinese prisoners.

2001-04 - criminal trial of Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, charged with stabbing jail guard while awaiting separate trial in 1998 United States embassy bombings conspiracy.

2006 - civil suit against former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman alleging that she misled people near World Trade Center site about risks of toxic air pollution after September 11, 2001 attacks.

2008 - commercial litigation between Exxon Mobil and PdVSA with regards to Venezuela's expropriation of Exxon assets in the Orinoco Basin of Venezuela.